Infected
by AimzNemesis
Summary: Another one of my own novelisations of a snippet of RE3, this time from the battle at the clocktower, when the Nemesis infects Jill with the T-Virus. One-shot.


(DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters, events or locations depicted. All are property of Capcom and Eidos. I am not in any way, shape or form attempting to infringe.)  
  
****  
  
The bell of the clocktower rang in Jill's ears over and over again, sending shivers of joy down her spine. She was finally going to be rescued! Rescued from this nightmare, the once peaceful city now turned into a hellhole, a nesting place and feeding ground for the undead and the most horrific mutants and bio-weapons ever known.  
  
Jill ran across the landing, past the large hairy corpses of the giant mutant tarantulas she had blasted earlier. Their long, hairy legs were curled up, making them appear more sinister dead than they were alive.  
  
"You were too unlucky." Jill muttered as she passed by them. "Well, that's what you get, really, for fucking about with me."  
  
Continuing down the large staircase, Jill found herself back in the main hall. Pausing only to take one last look at the hall, she took a deep breath and flung open the large double doors.  
  
The cool air hit Jill's face as she stepped out into the open, and she breathed it in gratefully.   
  
~I'm still alive.~ She thought. ~I faced death and survived.~  
  
Gazing up at the night sky, Jill heard the sound of whirring helicopter blades and tensed up with joy as the helicopter came into sight, flying low over the clocktower.  
  
~I'm saved.~ Jill thought happily. The chopper was closer now.  
  
"Down here!" Jill yelled, running to the centre of the garden. She stood, waiting for the chopper to land, blissfully unaware that she was being watched....  
  
~It's finally over.~ Jill thought, smiling, staring up at the helicopter that was now circling the area. She could see the pilot give her thumbs up sign.  
  
Just then, a loud clicking sound from above made all the hairs on the back of Jill's neck stand on end. She froze.  
  
What's that? Where have I heard that sound before? She wondered, her heart racing with fear. Is it.... the sound of....   
  
Of a weapon being loaded????  
  
Before Jill had time to think, she heard a loud WHOOSH.  
  
"Huh?!" Jill looked up. A small white object was flying, in a straight line, through the air, in slow motion almost.  
  
A rocket.  
  
"NO!" Jill screamed in desperation and horror as the rocket zoomed towards the chopper and connected with it.  
  
BOOOOOMMMMM!!!! Shards of metal and glass flew everywhere as the helicopter exploded.  
  
"AGH!" Jill put her hands to her head in horror and frustration as the chopper - or rather, what was left of it - crashed into the front of the clocktower, causing an even bigger explosion, sending the front part of the building crashing and crumbling to the ground. Rubble, stone and brick flew in all directions. Flames instantly sprouted from the wreakage and rubble that was now blocking any exits in eye shot.  
  
"No...." Jill couldn't believe it. She was so close to being rescued, so close to escaping, and now that opportunity had been taken away from her.  
  
A sudden roar made her look up.  
  
~What the hell.... no. Not him again. It can't be! It just can't!~ Jill thought in a panic, her mind racing. But it was. The Nemesis. The hideous mutant that was so determined to wipe her from the face of the Earth. On the roof of the clocktower he stood, his huge, rusted rocket launcher in hand, his one eye gleaming in the moonlight, his tentacles pulsating, snarling at Jill, who was standing rigid with terror. Even from down below, Jill could see triumph in the mutant's eye.   
  
Thought you could escape from me, didn't you? He seemed to be saying. Give it up. there is no escape.  
  
The Nemesis let out another roar and leapt from the building, landing directly in front of Jill, who backed away in fear.  
  
~Run, Jill, run!~ She repeatedly told herself, but somehow, her legs couldn't find the strength to move faster, and besides - she realised with horror - there was no way she could escape, not without a fight.  
  
"S.T.A.R.S." the Nemesis growled, and this time, Jill could sense more hatred in his voice than ever before. The monster swung at Jill with his heavy rocket launcher.  
  
"Hup!" Jill leapt out of the way of the hefty blow and looked fearfully at her enemy, who stared menacingly back, his eye seeming to bore right through her. Still she kept bcking away, keeping eye contact, getting ready to dodge the Nemesis' next attack.  
  
"S.T.A.R.S." the Nemesis snarled agin, and Jill shot a glance at his raised right hand. To her horror, part of his lethal tentacle was poking out from the top of his fingerless glove.  
  
~Oh, fuck!~ Thought Jill. ~He's gonna try that again!~  
  
She remembered what had happened to Brad. Poor, helpless Brad. She could still hear him screaming her name. Screaming for help. She could still see the Nemesis picking him up by the throat. That grotesque, bloodstained tentacle coming out. Brad's face, covered in blood. Jill shuddered at the memory.  
  
Jill and the Nemesis were now standing about seven feet away from each other. Shaking, Jill began to raise her grenade launcher at the monster's chest.  
  
Suddenly, before Jill could act, the Nemesis whipped back his arm with lightning speed, then forwards again. The long tentacle shot out and stabbed Jill directly on her right shoulder.  
  
"Ugh!" Jill staggered backwards and gripped her bare shoulder in pain. To her shock, her shoulder began to bleed, telling her that the tentacle had managed to puncture right through her skin. It stung terribly.   
  
Jill was slightly puzzled. The Nemesis never usually attacked in that way. Plus, when the tentacle had stabbed into her, it felt almost as if something had entered her body, like the feeling one gets when they're being vaccinated.  
  
The Nemesis threw back his head and let out a triumphant roar. Saliva dripped from is mouth as he began to advance towards Jill, snarling "S.T.A.R.S." repeatedly.  
  
~SHIT!~ Thought Jill in a panic. ~What do I do now?~ Suddenly, she no longer felt paralyzed with fear. Determination swept over her and she clenched her teeth. She started to run just as the Nemesis raised his rocket launcher.  
  
Jill dived behind a statue, gripping her shoulder tightly. A loud WHOOSH rang in her ears and the statue behind her shook violently as the rocket hit it. Scrambling to her feet, Jill went to grab her handgun, before remembering that she'd left it behind in the alter.  
  
~Oh, what the fuck, it won't do much damage to that overgrown bastard anyway.~ She thought. In fact, the only weapons that Jill had on her at that moment were her M629C Magnum, her grenade launcher and the mine thrower that she had recently acquired from the corpse of an Umbrella mercenary. Snapping back to the current situation, Jill suddenly had a plan.  
  
STOMP. STOMP. The Nemesis had lowered his rocket launcher and was now advancing towards Jill's hiding place. He peered behind the statue.  
  
She wasn't there.  
  
The Nemesis growled and stomped further behind the statue. All of a sudden, Jill leapt out from her hiding place in the shrubbery and quickly unloaded a couple of flame rounds into the hideous mutant's face. The Nemesis roared in pain and fury, momentarily blinded. Jill saw her chance and bolted for the other side of the garden, spun round, loaded some bullets into her magum and began firing rapidly. The pain in her shoulder was intense but she didn't care. She just kept firing, even when the Nemesis regained his senses and began to walk menacingly towards her.  
  
It was at that precise moment that Jill ran out of bullets.   
  
"SHIT!!" She cried in frustration, and began reloading the gun. The Nemesis saw his chance. While Jill was struggling with the gun, the large mutant darted forwards and had his hand wrapped around Jill's throat before she had time to react. Jill dropped her magnum in shock and gasped for air, kicking her legs furiously. This only made the Nemesis angrier. He increased the pressure on Jill's neck, making her eyes practically bulge out of their sockets. Jill felt herself going blue in the face as she choked and gagged. The Nemesis then raised Jill above his head and threw her across the garden as if she weighed nothing at all. Jill smashed into another statue, the impact knocking the wind out of her. Pain exploded against her spine and she could see hundreds of stars, dancing around in front of her eyes.   
  
~Air!~ She thought wildly. ~Must get air....~   
  
Jill barely had time to get to her feet before the furious mutant had her around the throat again. Raising her in the air once more, the Nemesis' tentacle slid out from underneath his skin. Jill's vision cleared just as the tentacle was raised to her face. Jill yelped and grabbed the tentacle, using as much strength as she could to wrench it away from her face. The Nemesis struggled against Jill and used his terrific strength to push the tentacle back towards her.   
  
"NO! I won't let you!!" Jill screamed, grinding her teeth against the numbing pain that was coarsing through her body. Her left foot lashed out and kicked the Nemesis under the chin, causing him to drop her to the floor. Before he could make sense of what was going on and grab her again, Jill ran, half limping, towards a hole in the rubble and dived in. There she lay, her heart thudding against her chest and her lungs screaming for air. Eventually, she sat up, after taking several deep breaths.  
  
At that point, Jill felt a strange feeling creeping over her. The pain in her back was fading rapidly.   
  
~Weird.~ She thought, puzzled. ~Pain like that doesn't fade that quickly. No way.~  
  
More than that, Jill's shoulder was no longer hurting. It was more like a strong tingly feeling, like she'd just been injected. Still puzzled, Jill put a hand to her tingling shoulder, which was still bleeding. She hadn't yet looked at it, but she could feel the fluid running down her arm. After a few seconds, she removed her hand and glanced at her shoulder. And gasped in sheer horror.  
  
Her shoulder wasn't bleeding at all. It was oozing a dark purple pus.  
  
It was then that Jill began to panic, for she felt strange all over her body. Glancing at both of her arms, she saw that her colour was beginning to fade. She was turning paler by the minute. And, when she put her hand to her forehead, she could feel how hot it was. She felt dizzy and slightly tired.  
  
In a sudden, horrifying instant, Jill realised what had happened to her.  
  
~I've been infected with the T-Virus.~  
  
It was hard to believe, but Jill knew that she had. The T-Virus, the deadly muta genic toxin that turned people into mindless, flesh eating zombies. The Virus that had destroyed Raccoon City.  
  
Jill then heard the roar of the Nemesis, and her determination grew.  
  
~I can't give up. I will survive. I promised myself that I would get out of this nightmare alive. I will get out of this mess and I will cure this Goddamned virus!~  
  
Jill knew for a fact that if she spent five more minutes down there the Nemesis would discover her hiding place, so she loaded up her grenade launcher with more flame rounds, took a deep breath and stepped cautiously out into the open, only to find herself face to face with the Nemesis.  
  
"AARRGH!!!" Jill shrieked, rolling out of the way of the massive fist that came smashing down. Drawing her grenade launcher, she unloaded several rounds that appeared to slow the Nemesis down, but nothing prepared Jill for what he was about to do next.  
  
The hideous creature raised his rocket launcher and fired a rocket that exploded right in front of Jill, blowing her over backwards. As she struggled to sit up, the Nemesis stormed towards her, growling and snarling.  
  
"JILL!" a cry from behind made the Nemesis turn around. Jill looked up.  
  
~That voice....~ She thought. ~Could it be....~  
  
A shape leapt from the burning pile of rubble and stood staring the Nemesis right in the eye.  
  
Carlos.  
  
Jill gasped and gazed up at the Nemesis glowering at Carlos, silhouetted against the fire. He had come to help her! How he had found her was a mystery to Jill. She remembered how she had slapped him in the face earlier, and instantly regretted it.  
  
Carlos moved bravely towards the Nemesis, firing his assult rifle. The Nemesis staggered backwards and appeared to get weaker under the heavy fire. However, all signs of weakness disappeared when the huge mutant raised his rocket launcher and fired. The rocket whizzed past Carlos, hitting a great big pile of rubble behind him. The force of the blast blew Carlos forward, slamming him against the hard concrete. In pain, Carlos slowly sat up to see the Nemesis walking towards him, his rocket launcher wavering by his side.  
  
"HAAARRRGH!!" Carlos screamed in anger and let loose a hail of bullets. The Nemesis simply stood there, unfazed by the whole affair, and raised his rocket launcher. Carlos continued shooting. Just as the Nemesis was about to pull the trigger, a large hail of Carlos' bullets hit the launcher, causing it to explode. The explosion sent the Nemesis flying backwards into the fire, where he lay, motionless.  
  
Jill was still sprawled in a weakened state on the floor. She had been watching with fear in her eyes. She slowly rose to her feet and went to tahnk Carlos. Unfortunatly, Carlos was weakened too. Before Jill had even opened her mouth to speak, Carlos groaned and slumped to the floor, unconscious.  
  
"Carlos!!" Jill screamed. She ran to his side and shook him. He didn't move.  
  
With tears in her eyes, Jill looked behind her, where she could see the dark shape of the Nemesis lying in the midst of the flames. Suddenly, Jill thought that she could see the huge mutant stir. Her heart froze.  
  
~It must be a trick of the light.~ She thought, breathing heavily. ~Oh God, please let it be a trick of the light!~  
  
But it wasn't. The Nemesis was definitely moving. Jill's heart was thumping so loudly that she felt like a loudspeaker with the bass turned up full. The Nemesis was getting up. Slowly, but steadily, he was getting up.  
  
Jill slowly moved sideways, her eyes transfixed on the mutant predator, still breathing heavily. Slowly, she went to retrieve her magnum. At the same time, the Nemesis arose.  
  
Jill froze in terror as the gigantic monstrosity struggled to his feet. He roared in anger when he saw Jill, his permanent grin widening.  
You little bitch, He seemed to be saying.   
  
Jill saw the fury in his eye and a chill shot down her spine. The Nemesis looked more frightening than usual. Blood ran in a red river down one side of his face. Purple ooze dripped from his right hand. A horrific burn ran up his right shoulder. Jill was so afraid, she had difficulty breathing. Slowly, fearfully, she reached down and picked up her magnum from the floor. Her hands shook as she struggled to load it. The Nemesis was absolutely livid and Jill knew it, and it was only a matter of hours before she transformed into a zombie. And she sure as hell wasn't going to let that happen.  
  
"S.T.A.R.S." The Nemesis growled. He ran towards Jill, his eye flashing with rage. Jill tried to dodge him, but he was too quick. Swinging his arm in a wide arc, the Nemesis punched Jill hard in the face. The force of the blow sent Jill skidding backwards into a bramble bush. The sharp thorns dug into her flesh, but all Jill felt was a strange itch. No pain.  
  
Now Jill was scared. She knew that the T-Virus was slowly eating away at her nerves. In a few hours' time, she would be a mindless, undead monster. The mere thought of it made her feel sick.  
  
Before Jill even had a chance to get up, the Nemesis reached out and grabbed her around the neck yet again. Growling and snarling with rage, he aggresively slammed her against the side of a statue. Jill felt as though her entire spine was shattering. This time she could really feel the pain. Pure, unbelievable pain shot through her body, momentarily blinding her.  
  
~Am I dying?~ Jill thought. She was in shock because of the pain, her vision blurred. She could see the Nemesis, just a blurred, dark shape, his deformed face just inches from hers. She then felt herself being lifted up.  
  
~Am I dead already? Am I flying up?~ Jill gazed longingly into the sky. It then became clear that she wasn't dead, when she found herself hurtling through the air and then hitting the floor after what seemed like an eternity. There she lay, her vision just starting to clear, panic and pain numbing her muscles, as she stared dumbly at the sky.  
  
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP. Jill heard the heavy footsteps coming towards her. The Nemesis' roar rattled her eardrumsa and she didn't feel as though her brain was functioning any more.  
  
~What's the point?~ She thought, miserably. ~I'm not gonna make it. I may as well just give up.~  
  
Jill was about to abandon all hope, when something inside her snapped. A voice in her head was screaming at her.   
  
~No! Pull yourself together, you stupid bitch! Kick that bastard's ass! Give it your best shot!~  
  
Using all her strength, Jill managed to heave herself up, much to the astonishment and anger of the vicious Nemesis. Roaring, he went for her and swung his fist at her head. Jill rolled out of the way and snatched her magnum from it's holster. Glaring the Nemesis right in the eye, she let rip with the gun. She fired six shots and the Nemesis fell to his knees, but Jill simply reloaded and fired again and again, even when the giant monster got to his feet again. He showed no signs of giving up. Fortunatly, neither did Jill.   
  
"AARRRGGH!" She screamed in frustration. "You never fucking give up, do you?! You just won't quit until I'm dead!!"  
  
These angry words seemed to infuriate the Nemesis even more. Again he swung for Jill, and again Jill dodged. Still she carried on blasting away.  
  
"Well, guess what?" She snarled. "It ain't gonna happen!" As weak as she was, she fired two more shots.  
  
Now the Nemesis was in pain. Jill could see it in his eye. This was exactly what she wanted. The T-Virus was beginning to get the better of her now, and her knees felt like Jell-O. Aiming the magnum directly at the middle of her enemy's head, she let loose one more bullet. The force of the recoil sent Jill sprawling backwards, she was so weak.  
  
The bullet struck the Nemesis right above his eye. He roared and, amazingly, turned his back on Jill.   
  
Jill nearly gasped in surprise.  
  
~I don't believe it. He's actually retreating!~   
  
And, sure enough, he was. The great monster was limping, staggering towards the fire that Carlos had suddenly emerged from. Groaning in pain, the Nemesis stumbled into the inferno.  
  
"Urrrrrgh.... S.T.A.R.S...." He groaned pathetically before collapsing into the flames with a thud. His movement ceased.  
  
By now, Jill was so incredibly weak she barely had enough strength to stand upright. Pain was still shooting up her spine. The feeling comforted her a little.  
  
~Better to feel pain,~ she thought, ~than to feel no pain at all.~  
  
Slowly, Jill began to limp towards Carlos. She was incredibly dizzy and she could see black spots pulsing in front of her eyes. Moaning in pain, she slipped away into unconsciousness and slumped to the ground, the blackness engulfing her.  
  
****  
  
A few minutes later, Carlos slowly opened his eyes. He looked around, slightly confused at first, trying to make sense of where he was. Then he remembered. He rose to his feet and saw Jill, lying motionless on the concrete. His heart froze in his chest.  
  
"Jill!!" He yelled, running up to her. He shook her, hard.  
  
"Jill! Jill! Wake up! Oh Jesus, please wake up!" He begged desperately, shaking her again.  
  
But there was no reply.  
  
**** 


End file.
